Sanctions

Iran hawks in Congress are in the early stages of planning an all-out campaign to blacklist, sanction, and isolate Iranian banks tied to the funding of terrorism and money laundering, according to sources and legislation obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

BRUSSELS—The Trump administration will cut off all Iranian business interests in Europe and elsewhere as part of what it calls a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran that seeks to isolate the Iranian hardline regime and its allies, according to senior U.S. officials and congressional insiders who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday sanctioned the wife of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and one of his aides under a new executive order allowing Washington to target Nicaraguan officials for a crackdown on anti-government protests.

The possibility of new European Union sanctions against Iran to punish the hardline regime for terror plots in France and Denmark could set the course for a more unified Western policy toward Tehran’s non-nuclear threats, according to a regional expert.

The Trump administration on Tuesday announced new sanctions on Iran and Russia for engaging in a financial scheme to enrich the embattled Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, according to U.S. officials.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday on four people linked to Lebanon’s Hezbollah who coordinate the Iran-backed group’s activities in Iraq and designated the son of the group’s leader as a global terrorist.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The United States will step up enforcement of sanctions on Iran, national security adviser John Bolton said on Tuesday, as Tehran tries to find ways to evade the restrictions in oil trade and in banking.

The Trump administration’s new sanctions on Iran, which came into effect on Monday, omit half of key entities tied to Tehran’s army forces and hardline paramilitary group known for conducting terror operations across the globe, according to a new analysis by a top watchdog organization.

The Trump administration has allowed European countries to continue cooperating with Iran’s nuclear activities at a contested, secretive facility where Iran had wanted to make weapons-grade uranium, one of many loopholes in the recently announced sanctions reimposition that Iran hawks have criticized as being too weak.

The Trump administration is poised to offer a series of major concessions to Iran that will let it escape key economic sanctions that the administration once vowed would kick back into force in the next several days, according to multiple U.S. officials and administration insiders familiar with the state of play.